PLATFORM: PC | RELEASE DATE: 19TH NOVEMBER (EARLY ACCESS)
2018’s Moonlighter cast players in the role of Will, a dungeon-delving shopkeeper who spends his evenings roaming nearby caverns to collect monster parts and relics that he can sell during his shop during the day. Its sequel, The Endless Vault, follows the same structure but makes some big changes to shake things up a bit. While the gameplay loop – fighting monsters, collecting loot, setting prices, making money to spend on upgrading your gear, then heading out for more – remains the same, Moonlighter 2 adds side quests, new combat mechanics, a completely different look, an expanded puzzle-like inventory system, and allows players to choose their route through the rooms of each dungeon.
All of the materials that you find in the dungeons, and subsequently sell in your shop, now have a quality value that acts as a multiplier, affecting the price you can sell them for. Some items are cursed, and will affect other items in your backpack (inventory) depending on where you place them. Item placement was always a factor in the previous game, but the variety of effects has been massively increased in the sequel, so managing your limited backpack space to maximise the quality of your loot and make sure you don’t accidentally destroy any precious items is always an absolute priority.
Inside a dungeon, you now choose your path from a randomly-generated grid that allows you to plan which rooms you want to visit. Some contain treasure chests, combat perks or other useful items, while others have difficult “elite” enemies or bosses. There’s a huge amount of temporary perks and upgrades (applied to your current run only) that work together in some well thought-out ways, adding bonuses to different attacks or adding status effects that can be boosted by using specific attacks, making combat a little bit deeper and more satisfying than before. You’re also given a couple of extra tools to play with, so you’re not just swinging your weapon around and hoping for the best – projectile attacks, with limited bullets that are replenished by landing melee attacks – are extremely handy for taking down far-away enemies, while a hefty swing with your backpack can send dazed foes flying off the screen.
Back in town, you’re able to visit a few shops to create new weapons and armour from the materials you collect in the dungeons, as well as upgrading your healing flasks and acquiring new decorative items for your shop. While some of the items are purely cosmetic, others affect the price that your customers will pay, making them worth investing in. Completing side quests by bringing back specific items from the dungeons will earn some decent rewards, and there’s an overarching quest from the mysterious Endless Vault, a magical cube that bestows useful tools upon the villagers when you’ve sold a certain amount of money, allowing them to create stronger gear that to help your dungeoneering escapades. There are seven of these treasures, but only four are available in the current version of the game – the rest are to be included with the eventual full release, whenever that may be.
As with many Early Access titles, the initial release of Moonlighter 2 has a lot going for it but will absolutely leave you wanting more. The game has launched with six dungeons which will amount to around 10 hours of playtime, but even after “finishing” the currently-available areas there will likely still be plenty of upgrades to be purchased and weapons to find. It certainly whets the appetite for whatever comes next. Moonlighter 2 is off to a great start and seems like it could turn into something truly special when more content is added.
